Magic. Nah, I kid. We have an agreement with the county about volunteer work and community service hours. We have lots of people that come in to do community service, mostly kids that have gotten in a bit of trouble, but a lot of adults, too. We are also lucky enough to have a housing authority in town that provides benefits to renters in exchange for community service. Some of THE hardest workers we have ever had come from the housing. Otherwise, we are big in the community. Tutoring days, computer lessons, hands-on sessions, computers. We provide the services and people flood in. They know there is a cool place in the summer and a warm one in the winter to do service. It helps a ton that we are in the bible belt and a lot of religions around here require community service. It also helps that we have a wonderful director that works her butt off for the community. I think that if you have awesome people always willing to help, services people are looking for, and a great environment for people to use, with the right kind of advertising, you could easily get some more volunteers, especially from the parents of the kids that come in. =)

It helps a ton that we are in the bible belt and a lot of religions around here require community service.

Regarding churches being useful because they require community service -- I know I'm probably not taking this in the way you meant it, but I feel like I need step in here. There are PLENTY of atheists and other secular people that perform TONS of community service - both organized and individually. You probably don't realize that they aren't religious people because it's not really a question you ask people (especially in the Bible Belt), unless they offer up that kind of information.

You know what else has the potential to bring in more aid to libraries and the rest of the community? Taxing the churches.

I understand. I do have to say though, this is a small town in the bible belt with a Catholic church and school a couple blocks away. Part of the requirements for graduating from that particular school is 40 hours of community service, so we have around 20 kids a year that have to have community service. Not saying that atheists don't do a great job, (I don't care about religion and therefore have zero need of asking, especially in such a job as this), just that we have a lot of people from the churches that volunteer.

Where I live currently teens need to do x amount of community service hours before they can get their diploma. I've actually asked at local libraries if the had any volunteer positions open because I wanted to keep busy between jobs, but they said really there's a waiting list to volunteer because all the teens need their community service hours and I didn't really "need" to volunteer.

because all the teens need their community service hours and I didn't really "need" to volunteer.

This is ridiculous, I feel for you. If someone is more competent & experienced and wants to volunteer out of the goodness of their heart, I'd take them over an inexperienced person who might not actually care about what they're doing (Not that I'd never give them a chance or that I'd necessarily "fire" a volunteer just to make room for you though). I've heard of waiting lists for volunteering at the public library, but even then they usually just go in order of who applied first & fits well with them...not reserving every position for a high school kid and telling you that you don't actually "need" to volunteer anywhere.

Of course, they have the right to choose whomever they want. I just don't agree with that method.

Full disclosure - I've had my fair share of bad volunteers and sometimes it's easier to not have any or wait for a person that fits well with your org. than just taking someone who needs to fill hours for whatever reason.

Yup their loss though, I ended up finding a school library and they paid for my background check so I have that to add to my resume until the year starts up again, and also starting leading an ESL group in August so come September I'll have two volunteer positions for references and recent background check. Gotta keep busy yo.